Large boots to fill

It is fortunate for New Zealand cricket that Daniel Vettori, who was recently appointed the Test team's captain, will bring to his role the same character and deep dedication that kept Stephen Fleming afloat, and generally flourishing, during his decade at the helm. Looking back, it says much for Fleming's staunchness that he successfully battled through some stormy times in New Zealand cricket.

As a new chum on the freewheeling tour of South Africa in 1994-95, he was one of three youngsters who fessed up to dabbling with marijuana. He was then on the sidelines during the ructions of the 1995-96 tour of India and the 1996-97 tour of West Indies when several players rebelled against the management of Glenn Turner. A player of less character might have joined Chris Cairns and Adam Parore, the leading rebels. Fleming stayed true and at the tender age of 23 found himself promoted to the captaincy when Lee Germon was summarily removed as captain during the 1996-97 England tour of New Zealand. Such was the strength of Fleming's character, and his respect for the game and his place in it, that he was able to isolate himself from the hot-headedness that was tearing the team apart.

Fleming then had to fashion his career under the coaching control of David Trist, Steve Rixon, Denis Aberhart, and John Bracewell, and it says much for his pride in his captaincy and playing performance that he was able to take value from such different men and their methods.

Fleming's career was forged amid argument and revolt. Vettori had a rather less dramatic introduction, but even as a teenager he had cricketing wisdom beyond his years. He will now have to translate that wisdom into the kind of leadership Fleming demanded, and achieved. It will not be easy.

Fleming grew in his leadership to the point that he was frequently mentioned as the best tactical and practical captain in modern Test cricket. He could bat (6620 Test runs at 39.64), and analyse - and quite often expose - his opponents' weaknesses. And he harvested 159 catches at first slip as well.

Vettori's all-round ability is not so extensive. He is one of the best slow left-armers (229 Test wickets at 34.28) in a game that too often casts finger-spinners as speculative rather than high-value assets. He is accurate in the field, but as yet without Fleming's slip-catching expertise. His batting has brought two centuries and 13 fifties in 73 tests, but seldom in the white-hot heat of the first new ball.

Finger-spinners have rarely become long-service skippers, especially these days when the aim seems to be to produce batsman-friendly pitches. But Vettori will no doubt relish being able to use his judgment about when to bring himself on. A case in point came in the World Twenty20 match against India at Johannesburg the other day when, after having promoted Jeetan Patel up the bowling order and seen his first over go for 21, Vettori came on, took four wickets and led the way to a ten-run victory.

There were times when Fleming wanted the team to work to his plans or ideas and he felt the management was not making the right decisions. There was another time, in Australia naturally, when he publicly advocated that his players would "out-sledge" the Australians. He rattled the cage of Graeme Smith, the South African captain, once or twice. The question now is whether Vettori, while a very wise and mature cricketer, can motivate a team that is rather tender in the high batting positions, and with fingers continually crossed over whether Shane Bond will be fit to hammer the enemy with the new ball.

There is the long-range hope that when Vettori's time as leader comes to an end, he will be offered a more mannerly farewell than Fleming received. When Fleming announced he would stand down from the one-day captaincy after the disappointment of failing in the World Cup semi-final against Sri Lanka, the drums began to beat. New Zealand Cricket, said the pundits, was not happy, and had begun to think about easing Fleming out of the Test captaincy as well. This was a nonsense, but comparatively sane when compared to some of the ideas that came rolling out of the rumour mill in the absence of a decisive statement from either NZC or Fleming himself. Then came the notion, which quickly morphed into gospel, that Fleming would cut his New Zealand painter and sail away to the vast riches promised by a rebel Twenty20 venture in India.

Denied hard facts, the New Zealand media diverted to tabloid babble. The grisliest effort came from the cricket writer Richard Boock (brother of NZC official and former New Zealand spinner Stephen). Referring to Fleming, and Bond who was also mentioned as a potential Twenty20 rebel, Boock wrote: "There's a name for a creature that feeds off the fat of its host before scuttling away to a juicier alternative, just as there's a name for a person who revels in the respectability of public office while at the same time grabbing every cheap buck on offer. Which is another way of saying that if Fleming, having sucked at the teat of NZC through a monumentally fortunate reign, wants to finish off by shunning the South African tour and playing in a tinpot Twenty20 circus alongside other has-beens and wannabes, let him go."

Boock dismissed Bond with more words that burn: "And if Bond, having been supported by NZC through the sort of injury-riddled career that only Evel Knievel could appreciate, wants to spend his final days bowling in a Golden Oldies tournament rather than for his country, let him go, too."

Vettori may have a more peaceful captaincy career than Fleming was allowed, but it might be a good idea for him to keep clippings like that one pasted above his bed head. When you are at the top you never know who wants to chop you off at the knees.